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Old Mutual Wealth sees assets increase 8% in Q1 2013

Old Mutual Wealth, comprising Skandia and Old Mutual Global Investors, today announces assets under management increased 8% during the first quarter...

﻿﻿﻿﻿9 May 2013

Old Mutual Wealth, comprising Skandia and Old Mutual Global Investors, today announces assets under management increased 8% during the first quarter of the year to £74.5 billion, as at 31st March 2013. Growth was driven by net inflows of £410 million and positive market movements. Gross sales during the quarter were up 19% on the same period last year to £3.1 billion.

The Skandia International business had a strong quarter with net inflows of £134 million, compared to a £12 million net inflow in Q1 2012, contributing to an increase in assets under management of 6% to £14.8 billion. Gross sales were up 15% to £449 million. The new Wealth Interactive service has been introduced successfully with new products in Singapore and the UK, and is expected to launch in other regions later this year.

Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) recorded gross sales of £1.5 billion, up 68% on Q1 2012. Sales were helped by positive markets and a major sales and marketing campaign, and significantly included OMAM (UK) sales for the first time and the transfer of assets into the new ‘Select’ funds that were launched during the quarter. Net inflows during the period were £134 million, despite a £225 million net outflow during the quarter following the sale of Skandia Nordic, contributing to a 9% increase in funds under management to £15 billion.

OMGI has significantly strengthened its UK equity capability during the period with the hires of Richard Buxton, Errol Francis, Ed Meier and Rob James who join the company in June 2013. Investment performance remains strong across OMGI’s long-only investment fund range with 43% in the top quartile and 76% above median over three years to 31 March 2013.

The Skandia UK platform saw net inflows of £498 million during the quarter, which contributed to a 9% increase in funds under management to £24.7 billion. The final platform rules announced recently by the FCA confirm that Skandia’s unbundled platform proposition is now the only platform in the market that is compliant with both the new RDR rules and the new platform rules, facilitating adviser charging and customer discounts in the form of unit rebates.

In the UK, Skandia has also reinvigorated its protection offering, the re-launch of an enhanced Critical Illness product in April following the launch of its gender neutral pricing option at the end of 2012. The value of applications in Q1 2013 was up by 47% over Q1 2012 which Skandia expects to have a positive impact on completions in Q2.

Paul Feeney, chief executive of Old Mutual Wealth, comments:

“Internationally we have seen significant sales growth in most of our markets, most notably Asia and South Africa. These are important sources of growth for us and we look forward to the impact of our new Wealth Interactive platform across other markets.

“In the UK, we have significantly enhanced our asset management capability with some important new hires to add large cap capability to our market leading UK equities desk. We are pleased to have clarity on the future of the platform market following publication of the final platform rules which we see as a strong endorsement of our platform strategy. We are now the only platform in the market to already be processing unit rebates to deliver discounted fund prices and we will now be focusing on enhancing the platform offering further in line with the needs of advisers and clients.”

¹ Includes business written in France, Italy and Poland

² Includes UK Heritage and OMW Europe closed book (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)

³ Represents assets and flows managed by OMGI on behalf of other Old Mutual Wealth businesses

⁴ From Q1 2013, the Lichtenstein business has been reported within OMW Europe (closed book) rather than International. Comparatives for 2012 have been restated

This press release is for journalists only and should not be relied upon by financial advisers or customers.